shepherds conference

By Elizabeth Prata

The annual Shepherds Conference held at Grace Community Church, currently pastored by John MacArthur, is a highlight of all the conferences on the Christian circuit. Drawing top-notch speakers from around the world, the sermons are encouraging, deep, and convicting.

The mission of Shepherds Conference is to provide the opportunity for men in church leadership to be challenged in their commitment to biblical ministry. It also aims to refresh men in ministry for the three days through the sermons, songs, and fellowship, and to BE served.

It began over 40 years ago. Thousands of men pour into the campus and overflow rooms are also filled. It has grown from 100 men to this year around 6000 men from all over the world attending.

For all of the ShepCons, as it’s nicknamed, John MacArthur has been the host. He has pastored Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA for 56 years and has said ShepCon is the highlight of the year for him. He has always said he has had two goals as a pastor: preach the word and raise up men. In this, he has been faithful.

Of all the 6000 men attending, there is one man who is not attending this year, and that is MacArthur himself. Previously he has opened and closed the conference with a sermon based on the conference’s theme, which this year is “Proclaiming Christ to the ends of the earth”. It is the first time in 40 years he has not been able to attend.

On March 7, 2025 published a video explaining why. In January 2023 he was preaching the first morning service and he became short of breath. “I went on to preach for 50 minutes” he said. But after the service as elders to attended him, “they sidelined me” and he was not allowed to preach the second service, MacArthur said. Doctors later confirmed he’d had a heart episode. Thus began an 18 month journey through numerous heart operations, lung surgeries, and dialysis. He has most recently been in the hospital for 7 weeks straight and was only recently released.

Disappointed he could not deliver his sermon to close out the conference this year, he gave a video message.

Below is a clip from the short published by Grace to You on Youtube, it’s not the entire message, which at present I cannot find online except from Phil Johnson of Grace To You, on Twitter. Watch the entire 2:30 message here if you are on Twitter/X. https://x.com/i/status/1898192033367609452

Or here on Facebook, the John MacArthur Appreciation Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MacArthur.111/posts/24010591651863596/

MacArthur said he had his message he’d intended to deliver printed and distributed to the conference attendees. It will also be sent to the people on GTY’s mailing list. Here is the cover:

It hits hard. Here is a transcription of the message from John MacArthur from the video.

I want to say ‘grace to you’, all of you who are at the Shepherds Conference. For me it’s a highlight of the year so you have to know my disappointment in coming to you through video. It really came down to being the only option because I haven’t had such a speedy recovery as I’d hoped to have. I feel great, I just lost a lot of strength by being 7 weeks in the hospital. It’s the hospital that can kill you. You can survive the illness…if you can survive the hospital then you’ve won on every level. It took a toll on me physically, so I’m seeing therapists and trainers trying to get back as soon as possible.

I had this message on my heart and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to give it to you so we printed it up in a booklet. The good news is, you don’t have to listen to me, you don’t have to take notes because you’re going to get the sermon in a booklet form.

Just know how much I miss being at Shepherds Conference. I love the fellowship, I love the preaching, I especially love the singing…every aspect of it. And the camaraderie and fellowship of meeting people is always a highlight. Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your faithfulness, and being a part of Shepherds Conference. I’ll be praying for you, asking the Lord to bless in an unusual way, and sharpen all of us for whatever the Lord has for us in the future.

I realize I’m on the last lap. That takes on a new meaning when you know you’re on the short end of the candle, but I am all thanks and praise to God for everything He’s allowed me to be a part of and everything He’s accomplished by His word in these years of ministry.

Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur is 85 years old. His acknowledgement of being near the end of his life is not only a statement of the obvious. His great age, shrunken body, tremulous voice, and numerous heavy medical issues all testify to that. But knowing MacArthur’s care for his elders and his people, his statement of being at the short end of the candle was a care in itself- preparing his people and the wider world for his translation in body on this earth to heaven’s glories. This is how a lion of the faith finishes well, indeed.

By Elizabeth Prata

The Shepherds’ Conference is a conference held at California’s Grace Community Church hosted by its pastor-teacher John MacArthur. It has been going for 20 years, annually, with 2021 the lone exception. For two decades it has hosted thousands of pastors, teachers, leaders from around the world who travel there to be encouraged with like minded laborers, to learn more of Jesus (being preached TO is something these men don’t receive often, being the ones who preach), and to be served by eager volunteers who want to host these weary ministers of the word, rejuvenating them before returning them to the battles they face.

The men who come enjoy it, the servers who serve enjoy serving, and I, as a watcher on the sidelines, am also encouraged by this conference. Ever since I began watching it in 2007, I am mightily moved by scenes from the conference. I don’t know why THIS particular conference moves me so, but it does. Maybe because I have been edified over the years by John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Paul Twiss, Don Green, and many other teachers at Grace Community Church. Maybe because I rejoice in the word of God being preached so well and to so many.

Seeing this photo moved me to tears today:

Photo posted by **Grace Community Church**

The earnest pastor hunched over the place where truth winds from Bibles from mouths to ears…the eager listeners with pens in hand and open Bibles, receiving the pure word, reviving their hearts and minds. I’m moved because there are SO MANY pastors in that audience- a sea of heads and hearts inclined to Jesus. Because they represent SO MANY churches where people have been saved and are being saved. How great is God.

I’m also moved in the other direction when I see that photo, sadness, because while we have the joy of hearing the word and exalting Jesus because of it, SO MANY don’t know Him! There are myriads of lost, their hearts gleefully exulting in sin and darkness as they go about stumbling toward death. They do not know the wrath of God hangs above them like a heavy storm cloud about to break over their heads.

Amid all the Twitter hoo-hah from detractors arguing about ShepCon, I think the grumps and crankies mainly forget that this conference, as with others like Ligonier, G3, Truth Matters, etc, that for attendees hearing the word, returning with a strong resolve, a better walk, a higher grasp of the Word, we multiply the sheep. Ultimately we are about our father’s business. Most days, we can’t see it. We gather in our local churches once a week, see our friends, hear the sermon, and scatter back to work on Monday, doing our best to live the Christian life.

When we’re lifted out of our small sphere to see all those men gathered at the Shepherds’ Conference, men who are husbands, pastors, grandfathers…making the huge effort in time and money to attend a conference with such superlative preachers…it’s moving. It’s a reminder that we are out there in force, pleading with souls to repent. It makes me feel joy to see visibly the pastors who otherwise I’d not know about. They are all trophies of grace the Lord has given the world. Rejoice in that!

MacArthur is a man who has preached steadily for 53 years. Nary a blot on his name. He has given the gospel to thousands, millions even, if you count the radio ministry. His MacArthur Study Bible is seen in the hands of an African preacher walking barefoot down a rural dusty path amid the elephants. It is seen in the hands of a pastor preaching truth in the Arctic circle on a tiny rock of an island in the Faroes, and everywhere in between. Thousands of men have been trained up by MacArthur, his men, and the seminary and sent as milkweed seeds into the rare places and the busy places and the common places, with the sole intent of bringing Jesus to the lost.

Who wouldn’t be excited for a ministry like that, and conference coming out a ministry like that? I am. The Lord always leaves a remnant. He is great and His promises are sure.

Tag: shepherds conference

John MacArthur: “I realize I’m on the last lap…”

Why I love The Shepherds’ Conference